Goldman Sachs on the road to Damascus?

Goldman Sachs is planning to change some of its practices in dealing with institutional clients, a step that could help it settle charges filed last month by US securities regulators.

The internal policy revisions come as the US Securities and Exchange Commission steps up demands for corporate governance changes as part of any negotiated settlement.

So, a settlement in store? But wait, there’s more:

On Saturday’s Charlie Rose Show, (CEO Lloyd Blankfein) acknowledged criticism of some of the internal bank e-mails released at the Senate hearing.

“There were some e-mails where some people were projecting … at best indifference, and at worst a callousness … We are going to have to go through our processes with a view to making people appreciate in a more positive way what we are doing. We can’t exist in the current state that we are in, and we understand that. So we have a lot of work to do.”

Given Blankfein’s past statements, some which could be described as somewhat indifferent, even callous, a wait-and-see attitude might be advisable.